The first forum on safety in recreational boating arrives

Gaceta Nautica organizes on April the 10th at the Port Center in Palma the first forum on safety in recreational boating.

Why should we take for granted that every year there are a dozen victims between deaths and maiming by boat propellers? Why also every summer we see boats burn, from small boats to large yachts, usually due to electrical problems or fuel related?

The Balearic Islands always leads the number of recreational boating assistances of Marine Rescue in the summer season in Spain, which is a consequence of the large presence of both local boats and from all over the world that meet in our waters.

However, the problems are always the same and, we could say, the mistakes that cause them too. Gaceta Nautica takes a step forward to end this loop that is repeated every year in Balearic waters with the organization of the first forum: 'Safety in recreational boating' to be held in Palma, in the Port Center building of the port of Palma (former headquarters of the Port Authority of the Balearic Islands), the afternoon of April 10th.

This innovative forum addresses the serious problem of safety in recreational boating from a multifaceted perspective: from the causes and circumstances that occur in this type of mishaps to the consequences that can result from them that can legally end the lives of people and companies. And, of course, the key to reducing the number of accidents: prevention. 

The forum will begin after the opening by the president of the Port Authority of the Balearic Islands, Javier Sanz, precisely with the intervention of the person who knows more about the circumstances of accidents in recreational boating: the captain of the Maritime Service of the Guardia Civil in the Balearic Islands, Francisco Cordoba. The person responsible for ensuring safety in our waters will give some guidelines to avoid accidents in navigation.

The second part of the forum will be dedicated to Maritime Rescue, the entity that is always the first to come to assist in all cases where there is an emergency at sea. In this case, we will have the intervention of the head of the Maritime Rescue coordination center in the Balearic Islands, José Ramón Crespí.

The role of administrations in improving safety in recreational boating will be the subject of the first roundtable of the Gaceta Náutica forum. This debate will be attended by the highest national authority on maritime issues: the General Director of the Merchant Marine, Gustavo Santana, the General Director of Maritime Transport of the Balearic Islands, Antoni Mercant, and maritime law expert lawyer Leon Von Ondarza. 

The last round table of the forum will address the most practical aspects of what we must and what we can do to improve safety on board. In this section we will have four protagonists: the nautical insurance expert José Baeza, Baeza Group and Generali agent; the head of the yacht charter sector in the Islands, José María Jiménez; the director of the School of the Sea, Carlos Petisco, and the pharmacist Maria José Miquel, who will offer the necessary guidelines to have an effective and complete first aid kit on board.